Judge: Cuban Father Should Win Custody

(AP)  The father of a 5-year-old Cuban girl at the center of an international custody battle did not abandon or neglect her, so he should get her back, a judge ruled Thursday.

Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen said she would not immediately return the girl to her father, Cuban farmer Rafael Izquierdo, who wants to take her back to Cuba.

The girl went into foster care after her mother brought her to the U.S. in 2005 and then attempted suicide days before Christmas. She has been living with foster parents in Miami for the past 18 months and they want to keep the girl here.

The Florida Department of Children & Families said Izquierdo abandoned the girl and officials want the girl to stay with her foster parents, Joe and Maria Cubas, a wealthy Cuban-American couple. The state's attorneys said removing the girl after such a long time would cause her serious emotional trauma.

Cohen said she would hold a follow-up hearing to listen to the state's arguments, but urged the department to "take the blindfold off and see the forest for the trees."

Izquierdo has denied that he abandoned his daughter and has professed his desire to return with her to Cuba.

"The court cannot deny Izquierdo custody of his child," Cohen said.

The father, foster parents and mother were all in court as the judge read her 47-page ruling over several hours. The judge said Izquierdo's efforts to regain his daughter once she was put in foster care "were not marginal for a man of his circumstances."

"He has diligently participated in what must seem to him a mysterious and daunting legal process. While geographically, Cuba is only 90 miles from the United States shores, the two countries are philosophically and politically worlds apart," Cohen said.

By Associated Press Hispanic Affairs Writer Laura Wides-Munoz

[michellem99-2009]

Young lady toldyouso21, Yer may be smart but yer wrong in this issue. Yer never ever know the life of a fostor child. I do and I don''t wish that life on that child. I HOPE AND PRAY that child is given back to her father and they together will be able to go home to their nation. We don''t have it better as an Americans just the dirty rich or well to do..Time America in put in her place. I met snobs and know it all. They live in their fancy houses and we poor live on our side. So Dear that bloody war is over oil. Yer right our males over there will as they all do in war, father babies over there to their wemen. Make homeless parentless childern. Yer think nothing of that. Well I do as we are hated over there and our leaders are so blind that they can''t see that if it was under noses. THE SAME WITH A CHILD THAT IS NOT OURS AND SHE IS NON AMERICAN AND SO IT IS NOT OUR PLACE TO SAY ANY DIFFERNT. THEY WANT TO GO HOME.. LET THEM..

[agnim]

"but then again...what kind of life are we really releasing this child into? We should look into that before just handing her over--we could be handing her over to incest or worse.

Posted by toldyouso21 at 10:19 PM : Sep 27, 2007"

There ARE MORE CHANCES for "incest" in America, LAND OF DEVIANTS & PERVERTS!

In Cuba, there are no so-called "freedom of speech" EXCUSE to protect and PROMOTE perverts and deviants, as there is in America!

[toldyouso21]

We really have to stop this idea, that because Americans have more--they are better parents to kids than their real parents--it is just like a lot of Americans talking about adopting Iraqi orphans--is there anything more galling than the conquerors taking the children of the people they destroyed? Iraqi orphans DO need parents--but the last thing they need are parents from the country whose actions probably caused them to be orphans in the first place. 2 Heinous acts performed for centuries to destroy a people at war--rape the women and impregnate them with the seed of the invader--steal their children thereby depriving them of the next generation. We have no rights to anyone''s children--but then again...what kind of life are we really releasing this child into? We should look into that before just handing her over--we could be handing her over to incest or worse.

[Krazcarl]

Got in late on this one. The child belongs {hate that word but true} with her dad. Yes she probably wouls have a better life here but that''s not the point. Unless he''s misfit {criminal pedephile something major}. Theres been no talk of starvation or rampet disease in Cuba so it''s safe maybe not up to the current administraions standards but nevertheless she deserves and needs to be with her farther lets not make politcal point out of a chald that''s cruel.

[michellem99-2009]

lOOK THAT CHILD BELONGS TO HER FATHER AND IT IS HIS FATHERLY DUTY TO RAISE HER. BESIDES HER NATION IS NOT AMERICA. SO AS AN AMERICAN I FEEL THAT CHILD SHOULD RETURN WITH HER FATHER TO THEIR NATION. Gramma I whote heartly agree with yer post..

[agnim]

Those Cubans in Florida are vicious and evil!

They would USE A MERE CHILD AS A WEAPON in their puerile political wars.

What has that father done them that they would use his own child to spite him? Tsk-tsk

Those Cubans should be place on a slow boat and shove out to sea and to Cuba. I''m sure the Fidelistos would have a fitting welcome for them. LOL

[agnim]

What a waste of court time.
The mother has a sick suicidal brain.
The father is quite healthy.

In any event, the child should be sent back to her homeland, which has not rejected her.

[grammawhamma]

She belongs with her dad...give her back.

[antoniof123]

This should not be an issue we have already dealt with this the child belongs with the father. I am sick of people saying oh the child would be better here. The real question is how do you know and how can you be sure.

[michellem99-2009]

This is one of my platform that I speak against foster homes as I know that life. That girl belongs with her father and she is not American so she must be retuuned to her kin in her nation. Selfish foster parents are in it for the money not that girl''s welfare. It is best she be raised in her nation as she is not nationised. The courts should keep thier nose out of breaking up children and their parents. I saw little Elian and I was shocked the way he was handled. To a child it looked liked a bully with a gun. I saw it on TV. Poor child. America that girl is not ours and this means she belongs to another nation. It is not our out place to keep her. Return her to her nation and that is the honourable thing to do.